After scoring a stunner against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday, Eberechi Eze was instead praised for the improvement in his off-ball work.
As the ball dropped to him, Eberechi Eze cushioned it, spun and lashed into the top-left corner from 25 yards practically all in one motion.
A goal-of-the-season contender and the strike that nudged Arsenal in front en route to booking a place in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, it was a headline grabber.
Only, much of the focus on Eze in the aftermath of the Gunners’ 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday focused on an entirely different side to his game, and more generally on adaptation to life at the Emirates Stadium.
The thing is, his goal, although an undeniably picture-perfect example of his brilliant technical ability, wasn’t that surprising. We know he’s capable of that, and long-range shooting has always been a real weapon of his.
But talk after the game quickly turned to the less glamorous side and grittier aspects of football, and it would seem this is especially important with respect to Eze’s recent rise to prominence.
Let’s not forget, it wasn’t so long ago that Eze’s debut season was shaping up to be rather underwhelming on an individual level.
There was a spell across December and January when Eze was an unused substitute five times in a spell of seven matches across all competitions. He then only featured for 12 minutes against Liverpool on 8 January, before playing the full game against Championship side Portsmouth in the FA Cup.
That cup clash was one of just two matches between the start of December and 20 January – a period that saw Arsenal play 13 times – in which Eze featured for more than an hour.
Looking specifically at the Premier League, which most would regard as Arsenal’s primary focus and priority, Eze went four games without playing a single minute, followed by a five-match spell that yielded him just 87 minutes in total.
When he was named in the lineup to face Brentford on 12 February, he was making his first league start in a day shy of two months. And even then, he was taken off at half-time.
The turning point for Eze seemed to be the north London derby 10 days later. Having scored a hat-trick against Tottenham – whom he almost joined last summer – earlier in the season, he was their tormentor again at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, netting twice in a 4-1 win.
While it probably isn’t quite as simple as Eze not fitting in at Arsenal before that game and then suddenly being ideal from that point, it does at least give us a yardstick to measure against.
But as noted before, it’s not so much Eze’s on-ball quality that’s seemingly aided his standing at the club.
There has been an uptick in some of his off-ball metrics in this time, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
After Tuesday’s win over Leverkusen, Arteta was asked specifically if he’s noted an improvement in Eze’s pressing. The response was unequivocal.
“Without that, you don’t have any chance to play in this team, because everybody does it, and that’s the magic of it and the reason why we are so consistent in winning matches and preventing the opponent to score,” Arteta said. “[Eze] can do it – if he couldn’t do it, I would never demand it. He can do it, he’s willing to do it, and he’s doing it better and better every day.”
The numbers back up this assertion, too.
Looking only at games in the Premier League and Champions League, his output when it comes to pressures has increased over the past month.
Since the start of that Tottenham game, Eze has averaged 67.4 pressures (approaching the player in possession aiming to win possession/limit passing options) per 90 minutes. Before that derby win, Eze averaged 58.5 pressures per 90.
It’s a similar story with respect to high-intensity pressures (pressures within two metres of the opponent). Prior to the win at Spurs, he averaged 38.7 per 90; over the past month, that has improved to 47.2.
As such, it’s curious to see how his frequency of possession regains per 90 in those two competitions has also increased significantly since that north London derby, going from 1.8 to 3.8.
We should point out that we are looking at two sample sizes that are considerably different: seven matches versus 27.
But, while we urge caution about the idea of Eze’s playing style transforming as if by the flick of a switch, the numbers do offer some support to Arteta’s assessment.
Where Eze is playing ought to be taken into account as well, because there does seem to be a greater localisation down the centre of the pitch more recently than before, as the graphics below show.
Above all else, however, could it be that Eze just needed time? Would it be so unusual if a player took a few months to adapt to his new surroundings and teammates?
The environment at Arsenal is hugely different to what Eze experienced at Crystal Palace, where he was very much a big fish in a small(er) pond.
“He is playing I think every three days now,” Arteta added on Tuesday. “He has a rhythm, an understanding with his teammates as well, [an understanding about] what we want, and especially his level of activity, with and without the ball, in the spaces that he moves.”
At Palace, Eze was the maverick, afforded considerable freedom because he was often their most influential attacker.
It’s important Arsenal don’t coach that side of the game out of Eze, as freedom likely helped him assert his long-range shooting as such a strength.
Clearly, that is still alive and well, judging from his strike against Bayer Leverkusen, while his six attempts from outside the box against Everton at the weekend was the joint most by anyone in a Premier League game this season.
“The purpose that he’s showing every time he’s in and around the box as well, it’s a reason why he’s here, to create those kinds of moments,” his coach said about Eze’s glorious strike against Leverkusen.
It’s a useful weapon to have in the armoury, particularly when it comes to facing low blocks, as Arsenal frequently do.
The key distinction in that quote, however, is probably the fact Arteta said “a reason” – it’s not the reason.
Such moments are sensational, memorable and potentially decisive, but if we’ve learnt anything from Arteta’s Arsenal over the years, it’s that no one is excused from grafting.
Recent signs suggest Eze is on a similar wavelength, and if you can develop a maverick to buy into the grittier parts of the game, their value to the collective can reach a whole new level.
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Eberechi Eze’s Evolution: Screamers Are Nothing New, But Pressing Improvement Has Taken Him Up a Level Opta Analyst.
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